Festival Bhagavathy, Kannaki
Attukal Pongala
The pongala at the Attukal Bhagavathy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, where women cook a sweet rice offering in the open in brick hearths that fill the streets of the city for miles.
Attukal Pongala 2027 falls on Monday, 22 February, computed for Chennai.
Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Kerala calendar, computed for Chennai
- Monday, 22 February 2027
- Saturday, 11 March 2028
- Thursday, 1 March 2029
Where Attukal Pongala falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 22 Feb
- 2028: 11 Mar, 18 days later
- 2029: 1 Mar, 11 days earlier
The dates, year by year
Kerala calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The pongala at the Attukal Bhagavathy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, where women cook a sweet rice offering in the open in brick hearths that fill the streets of the city for miles. Only women make the offering; the fire is passed from the temple hearth outward, and the priest sprinkles holy water on every pot at the end. It is one of the largest gatherings of women anywhere.
- Deity
- Bhagavathy, Kannaki
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The goddess of Attukal is held to be Kannaki, the heroine of the Tamil Chilappathikaram, who burnt Madurai for the unjust killing of her husband and passed through Attukal on her way to Kodungallur. The temple's story says she came as a young girl to an elder of the Mulluveettil family by the Killi river and asked to be taken across, then vanished, and came to him again in a dream to ask for a shrine where the temple now stands. The festival runs ten days from the kappukettu, the tying of the sacred band on the goddess, while the thottampattu singers sing her story, and the pongala is lit on the ninth day, as the song reaches the death of the Pandya king. Women make the offering for a wish to be granted or in thanks for one that was, and many come back every year for the rest of their lives.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Attukal Pongala: how it is kept
Keep ready
- three bricks for the hearth
- a new clay pot (mankalam)
- dry coconut fronds and shells for fuel
- raw rice (pachari)
- jaggery (sharkara)
- grated coconut
- ghee, cardamom, cashew nuts and raisins
- plantain leaves
- water in a brass or steel vessel
- a small lamp and flowers
- rice flour, banana and vayana leaves for the therali, where it is made
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
The pongala itself is raw rice boiled with jaggery, grated coconut and ghee, often with cardamom, cashew and raisins, the sweet offering the goddess is said to love. Some women also make therali, rice flour with jaggery and banana steamed in vayana leaves, and mandaputtu, a steamed cake of rice flour, jaggery and coconut; others offer plain white rice or a payasam as their vow requires, and traditions vary. The Amman temples of the Tamil districts make the same kind of sakkarai pongal for the goddess on their own festival days.
The hour
Clock times for Monday, 22 February 2027 at Chennai
Pooram nakshatra at sunrise in Kumbham, near the Pournami; the hearths are lit at the hour the temple announces in the morning and the pongala is offered at about midday.
The main rite. Pooram nakshatra at sunrise in Kumbham, the ninth day of the temple festival. The hearths are lit when the priest brings the fire from the sanctum to the pandara aduppu, the temple's own hearth, at the hour the temple announces in the morning, and the pots are sanctified with theertham later the same day.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 06:29 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Madhyahna | 12:23 | midday, the midpoint of sunrise and sunset |
Sunrise 06:29, sunset 18:16, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Krishna Dwitiyai from 02:04 until 23:40 | then Krishna Thritiyai until next day 21:49 |
| Nakshatra | Purva Phalguni until 11:55 | then Uttara Phalguni until next day 10:28 |
| Rahu kaal | 07:57 to 09:26 (1 h 28 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 10:54 to 12:23 (1 h 28 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 13:51 to 15:19 (1 h 28 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:59 to 12:46 (0 h 47 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 19:40 | moonset next day 07:58 |
For Monday, 22 February 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
Those who cook the pongala fast from the previous night and eat only after the offering is sanctified.
What is avoided
Men do not make the offering; they carry water, keep the crowds in order and help, but the hearth is a woman's. No hearth is lit before the fire has come from the temple, and no one eats from the pot or lifts it away before the theertham has been sprinkled.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Attukal is the great one; similar pongalas are made at other Bhagavathy temples in Kerala and at the Amman temples of the Tamil districts on their own days.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil women from Kanyakumari and the southern districts come in numbers, and the goddess they honour is Kannaki of their own epic; at home the Amman temples of Tamil Nadu have pongal offerings of their own on their own festival days.
- Kerala (the dates above)
- Thiruvananthapuram's own: the hearths run along the roads for miles around the temple, and women come from every district of Kerala and from abroad; smaller pongalas are offered at other Bhagavathy temples of the state on their own days.
The dates above are the Kerala reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
ആറ്റുകാൽ പൊങ്കാല ആശംസകൾAttukal Pongala ashamsakal
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Attukal Bhagavathy Temple 627 kmThiruvananthapuram, Kerala
The entry for this day names Thiruvananthapuram. The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. The pongala at the Attukal Bhagavathy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, where women cook a sweet rice offering in the open in brick hearths that fill the streets of the city for miles.
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.